Tom Goldman

Tom Goldman is NPR's sports correspondent. His reports can be heard throughout NPR's news programming, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and NPR.org.

With a beat covering the entire world of professional sports, both in and outside of the United States, Goldman reporting covers the broad spectrum of athletics from the people to the business of athletics.

During his more than 20 years with NPR, Goldman has covered every major athletic competition including the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals, golf and tennis championships, and the Olympic Games.

His pieces are diverse and include both perspective and context. Goldman often explores people's motivations for doing what they do, whether it's solo sailing around the world or pursuing a gold medal. In his reporting, Goldman searches for the stories about the inspirational and relatable amateur and professional athletes.

Goldman contributed to NPR's 2009 Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and to a 2010 Murrow award for contribution to a series on high school football, "Friday Night Lives." Earlier in his career, Goldman's piece about Native American basketball players earned a 2004 Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award from the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University and a 2004 Unity Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association.

In January 1990, Goldman came to NPR to work as an associate producer for sports with Morning Edition. For the next seven years he reported, edited and produced stories and programs. In June 1997, he became NPR's first full time sports correspondent.

For five years before NPR, Goldman worked as a news reporter and then news director in local public radio. In 1984, he spent a year living on an Israeli kibbutz. Two years prior he took his first professional job in radio in Anchorage, Alaska, at the Alaska Public Radio Network.

Copacabana Beach is supposed to be fun, but it wasn't Saturday night, after the Netherlands beat Brazil 3-0 in the World Cup third-place game.

That loss came on the heels of the 7-1 drubbing by Germany earlier in the week. It's the first time since 1940 that Brazil has lost consecutive home games, prompting calls for change in a country long associated with soccer splendor.

Sunday's championship match pits Germany against Argentina in Rio de Janeiro. But for Brazilian fans, the tournament that began a month ago with so much hope for the host country has ended with a thud.

Fri July 4, 2014

In Brazil, tears of joy and relief as the World Cup home team won its quarterfinal against Colombia.

(CHEERING)

SIEGEL: Brazil beat Colombia 2-1 in a hard-fought game between the two South American neighbors, but as we'll hear, it was a costly victory. An earlier game today - Germany defeated France 1-nothing to move on to the World Cup final four. NPR's Tom Goldman is in Rio de Janeiro, and he joins us now. And, Tom, first of all, Brazil won. But in a way, it also lost. Tell us about that.

And I'm Renee Montagne. It's all on the line today for the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team at the World Cup in Brazil. The U.S. plays Belgium in the knockout stage of the tournament. Lose this one and America's World Cup is all over. But yesterday, some good news - a goal-scoring teammate the U.S. team has been missing nearly the entire term, maybe coming back. From Salvador, Brazil, NPR's Tom Goldman has the story.

World Cup 2014 Coverage

12:23 pm

Sun June 29, 2014

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Don Gonyea. Brazil has lived to play another day at the World Cup - barely. The host country was taken to the absolute limit yesterday before prevailing on penalty kicks against Chile.

It was the first game of the tournament's knockout stage. NPR's Tom Goldman reports on how the Brazilians almost got drummed out.

The U.S. plays Portugal in a key World Cup match on Sunday, and it is in the tournament's most exotic locale: Manaus.

Manaus is a teeming city of nearly 2 million in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. But it's not some remote outpost; it's the sixth richest city in Brazil, thanks to its Free Trade Zone designation bringing big business like Nokia, Honda and Harley-Davidson.

Fifty years ago this week, teenager Jim Ryun of Wichita, Kan., ran a mile in under four minutes, the first high school boy to break the mythical barrier. But in the past few decades, the mile as a racing distance has fallen out of favor.

Mon May 12, 2014

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block. The LA Clippers pulled off a comeback victory last night to tie up their playoff series with the Oklahoma City Thunder, but that's not the Clippers conversation of the day. That conversation centers on Donald Sterling, the now-banned Clippers owner. He has broken his silence.

In a CNN interview, Sterling apologized for racist remarks that emerged on an audio tape. NPR's Tom Goldman reports.

Wed May 7, 2014

The Donald Sterling case is far from over. Yes, the NBA has banned the L.A. Clippers' owner for life and the pro-basketball playoffs have continued. But Sterling has not revealed what he will do after being banned from the league for making racist remarks. He is expected to fight the forced sale of his team and that could have significant consequences.